wgmiller
Well-known member
Truer words have never been spoken!
Tea Creek, 7/15/25
- Thread starter KylePruitt
- Start date
Truer words have never been spoken!
I started fishing Tea 1978 when I was good friends with someone in Lewistown and no one else flyfished.
I explored on my own. Always love to do that.
The mill dam was there and there were always nice wild browns at the top of the dam and below. Honey Creek was always good, as well as the Kish.
It had a good sulphur hatch all the way up through.
There's a white house just downstream of the Chief Logan bridge and back then an older woman lived there, alone. When I asked for permission to fish in pretty much her backyard, she told me some stories about her fishing for trout with "sulphur" flies she bought that were tied on hooks that didn't have an "eye", but front end "tippet" extensions.
She said she caught a lot of browns with them, in her backyard and up and down Tea Creek.
In the 1970s, I always caught at least one brown 16" or more every outing. I ate some.
Caught lots of young browns all the way down through Reedsville to the Honey Creek restaurant overlooking Honey Creek.
I introduced Tea Creek to a late friend of mine. He and his wife camped and fished along Tea Creek upstream of Logan bridge for their honeymoon during the very late 1970s
This was before the new Rt 322 was built which made it much easier to get to a Penn State football game. When the new Rt. 322 bridge was being built there was an accident from the road building crew and Tea Creek was poisoned and great trout die-off.
Different to see now. Traffic much heavier, as everywhere.
Always fished well, but I was usually the only one fishing.
I feel a need to revisit. Last time I eyeballed was coming south from a remembrance event along Spring Creek at Fisherman's Paradise early 2023.
Anyone know if there is general year-round or person-by-person permission to fish upstream from the Chief Logan bridge?
I explored on my own. Always love to do that.
The mill dam was there and there were always nice wild browns at the top of the dam and below. Honey Creek was always good, as well as the Kish.
It had a good sulphur hatch all the way up through.
There's a white house just downstream of the Chief Logan bridge and back then an older woman lived there, alone. When I asked for permission to fish in pretty much her backyard, she told me some stories about her fishing for trout with "sulphur" flies she bought that were tied on hooks that didn't have an "eye", but front end "tippet" extensions.
She said she caught a lot of browns with them, in her backyard and up and down Tea Creek.
In the 1970s, I always caught at least one brown 16" or more every outing. I ate some.
Caught lots of young browns all the way down through Reedsville to the Honey Creek restaurant overlooking Honey Creek.
I introduced Tea Creek to a late friend of mine. He and his wife camped and fished along Tea Creek upstream of Logan bridge for their honeymoon during the very late 1970s
This was before the new Rt 322 was built which made it much easier to get to a Penn State football game. When the new Rt. 322 bridge was being built there was an accident from the road building crew and Tea Creek was poisoned and great trout die-off.
Different to see now. Traffic much heavier, as everywhere.
Always fished well, but I was usually the only one fishing.
I feel a need to revisit. Last time I eyeballed was coming south from a remembrance event along Spring Creek at Fisherman's Paradise early 2023.
Anyone know if there is general year-round or person-by-person permission to fish upstream from the Chief Logan bridge?
dryflyguy
Well-known member
I've heard others refer to it as "the" Po.
Maybe because of its long name, that probably gets mispronounced a lot
wgmiller
Well-known member
Those are some great memories. I'm sure things were vastly different almost 50 years ago.
I've fished upstream of the Chief Logan bridge on several occasions and never had an issue with access, yellow signs, or purple paint. Some neat water up there, albeit a bit technical in some areas. I was able to land some browns, but nothing of any size. I think that water likely fishes best on an overcast/rainy day, as bluebird skies are never your friend when it comes to trout fishing.
mt_flyfisher
Well-known member
Vern -
You and I may even have crossed paths as I often fished there from the early 1970’s to the mid-1980’s. Like you, I also had a close friend that lived in several places tat that time, Including Reedsville and Milroy. He also lived behind the Old Woolen Mill on Coffee Run and managed the trout ponds for the Coffee Run fishing club for several years.
A few times I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Burnham for a month or more at a time that gave me a chance to work from 8-5, and then fish until dark as often as I wanted, which included fishing Honey and Tea. I also fished Coffee Run, including the club water when my friend lived there, and I also fished (and caught some nice trout) on Alexander Spring, something you don’t hear much about these days.
I also used to run a few miles on the roads around there in the evening after work, and I remember running one evening when there were 1000’s of cicadas along the edge road from Burnham to the Holiday Inn (which was along 322). That could have been 1974, if my math is right? We caught some big brown trout there that year fishing live cicadas, but don’t tell anyone. 😃
John
I'm assuming he meant the bridge that crosses Tea Creek right near Chief Logan's historic home. There is a historic sign there.
KylePruitt
Member
Wow, thank you for sharing that!
I always checked out Coffee every time up there and decided to head west from the restaurant to go Belleville*.
I never fished it. I just scouted.
I need to make a correction on the Tea Creek history. The trout kill off in Tea was more recent. early 2000s, guessing without checking Lewistown newspaper archives. It was a bridge repair. I'm going to have to check it out now! Damn.
(*As an aside, Belleville is where those Metz fly tying chicken strains were bred and raised, processed and sent out to market. They had a big chain link fence around the whole operation and a guard at the drive through gate. Fly tying is a good market, and protecting the genetics is key. They wouldn't even let their eggs leave the place.)
mt_flyfisher
Well-known member
We’re getting off the subject a bit, talking of Belleville and the Metz hatchery, but I think this old 1994 Sport’s Illustrated article about Buck Metz and his hackle production is quite interesting:
Lord of the Flies
To his unsuspecting neighbors Robert (Buck) Metz is just another chicken farmer, which is fine with him. He would rather not draw attention to his most
vault.si.com
I spent a lot of time in Belleville back then, and knew many people who lived there, but I don’t recall even noticing the Metz hatchery the few time I may have driven past it. They were probably happy that people didn’t notice them there at that time.
I would say they might have been cautious.
A friend of mine work for Metz during the 1980s, when he said there were Amish women who worked in one of the red brick buildings along the stream.
(He was the one who came up with the circle of necks promotion image.)
A certain place in-townish was were the birds were killed, without blood and without lots of clucking.
(Could it have been gas engine exhaust?)
One day I was visiting a brother-in-law and we were sitting around his kitchen table with a group of his friends, including one who worked for Metz.
I played harmonica fairly well, and after I played a song, he declared that he needed to take me into the operation and get some necks.
We drove through the main gate hidden in the back seats. He drove us to one of he buildings and took us in.
He had me follow him down through the building aisles between the long lines of cages with hackle bred chickens and roosters.
He had me carry a big black plastic garbage bag. He had me follow him and he asked me what kind of hackle I wanted, and as we walked down the aisle he would make a quick stop, pull out a rooster by the feet, swing in a big circle and hit the head on the floor and kill it instantly, and then hand it to me to put in the sack.
Then we went back to the brother-in-law's house and sat back down at the table and drank some beer.
Got some good hackle that day.
A friend of mine work for Metz during the 1980s, when he said there were Amish women who worked in one of the red brick buildings along the stream.
(He was the one who came up with the circle of necks promotion image.)
A certain place in-townish was were the birds were killed, without blood and without lots of clucking.
(Could it have been gas engine exhaust?)
One day I was visiting a brother-in-law and we were sitting around his kitchen table with a group of his friends, including one who worked for Metz.
I played harmonica fairly well, and after I played a song, he declared that he needed to take me into the operation and get some necks.
We drove through the main gate hidden in the back seats. He drove us to one of he buildings and took us in.
He had me follow him down through the building aisles between the long lines of cages with hackle bred chickens and roosters.
He had me carry a big black plastic garbage bag. He had me follow him and he asked me what kind of hackle I wanted, and as we walked down the aisle he would make a quick stop, pull out a rooster by the feet, swing in a big circle and hit the head on the floor and kill it instantly, and then hand it to me to put in the sack.
Then we went back to the brother-in-law's house and sat back down at the table and drank some beer.
Got some good hackle that day.
It is a pretty discreet operation. It is still there, and you can still see it. It isn't hidden, but it isn't publicized. I have always been happy with my Metz hackles.We’re getting off the subject a bit, talking of Belleville and the Metz hatchery, but I think this old 1994 Sport’s Illustrated article about Buck Metz and his hackle production is quite interesting:
Lord of the Flies
To his unsuspecting neighbors Robert (Buck) Metz is just another chicken farmer, which is fine with him. He would rather not draw attention to his most
I spent a lot of time in Belleville back then, and knew many people who lived there, but I don’t recall even noticing the Metz hatchery the few time I may have driven past it. They were probably happy that people didn’t notice them there at that time.
Broodstock
Well-known member
These kind of stories on this thread - this is the kind of stuff I came to this board for. Keep them coming. Cheers.
My last reply about Tea Creek. At least for this post.
So, I say,
Yo! Check out this for Tea Creek info!
Page 11 paragraph mentions the fish kill with the bridge work.
Even though that happened, it does seem insignificant now, I suppose. The report shows and explains some of the characteristics of the creek.
So, I say,
Yo! Check out this for Tea Creek info!
Page 11 paragraph mentions the fish kill with the bridge work.
Even though that happened, it does seem insignificant now, I suppose. The report shows and explains some of the characteristics of the creek.
"Concrete poured into a sinkhole during construction on US 322 on August 5, 1997 caused a drastic chemical alteration resulting in a severe fish kill that largely destroyed the wild brown trout fishery of Tea Creek."
Mistakes were made.
Us locals refer to it as "the breeches".
It has had a 100% positive increase on not only Tea, but on the water downstream of Tea. I don't see how a silted in mill pond that gets baked by the sun could have any positive effect on trout streams in PA.
sixfootfenwick
Well-known member
I've heard locals refer to it as the yellow breeches
